Doncaster workers among lowest paid in the country

Workers in Doncaster are among some of the lowest paid in the country – with one in four earning less than two thirds of the average national wage.

That’s the finding of a new report which analysed pay rates in towns and cities across the country – and discovered that more and more workers are being forced into volatile, low-paid jobs in order to keep their heads above water.

The report, by research group Centre for Cities and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found that over one in five workers in the UK are now on low pay, with more employed households in poverty than unemployed.

And it found that the employment and pay situation in Doncaster was among the worst in the whole of the country.

Statistics revealed that, in the town, one in four workers earned less than two-thirds of the median national wage, and that Doncaster also fared badly when it came to differences between high- and low-pay occupations.

The town was ranked bottom of a list of more than 60 UK towns and cities with the number of low-paid workers showing the greatest gap from highly-paid workers.

The report said the gap between good and poor quality jobs had polarised.

Alexandra Jones, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “There’s no doubt that low-paying jobs have always existed and that some cities continue to see significant growth in high-paid jobs.

“But what has changed is that, in many cities, the pathways to upward mobility have been severely eroded, as their jobs markets polarise and the stable jobs of the ‘middle’ begin to slip away.

“The trend towards low-paying, insecure employment is bad for workers, bad for cities and bad for the economy.”